Talk:Crew

Please see the Community Portal for an additional discussion on developing a template for Crew pages. --TheCutestOfBorg (talk) 16:13, 7 February 2016 (MST)

Format for Crew Pages
If someone could codify the format for crew pages, I can start adding information.

An admin should decide what levels information should be given out for - this is especially tricky since equipment alters stats as well. Of course the no equipment level 1 data is easy to get, but not very helpful, either. --Pallanthas


 * I think having information for level 1, level 10 all equipment, level 20 all equipment etc would be both useful and doable. -- ST Logo.png MilkN2Sugars (My talk page) 14:06, 18 January 2016 (MST)


 * I just tried creating a crew page for Fencing Sulu by cobbling together bits and pieces from various other crew pages. I like your suggestion to just focus on the skills for levels, 1/10/20/etc. with all equipment.
 * I'm new to this so please feel free to make any changes or suggestions as you see fit. Does anyone know if each star ranking adds a set number/percentage of points to skills? I saw that some pages were listing separate skill tables for each star ranking and that seems a little cumbersome and possibly unnecessary. If so, do you think it would be best to add one separate table noting the bonuses for each star ranking? (Edit: Disregard, I came to my senses ^_^) TheCutestOfBorg (My talk page) 19:32, 5 February 2016 (UTC−7)

I looked at a bunch of crew member pages and came up with a proposed Template:Crew_Member that I think combines the best features of the different formats I saw. The main questions I have about a new crew member are: what skills do they have, what traits do they have, how hard are they to level, and how good do they get. This template makes the answers easy to find and is fairly compact. What do you think? --Shogo Yahagi (talk) 13:57, 11 February 2016 (MST)


 * I think that putting the skill numbers for each of the 99(?) levels and for each * level would get unweildly and impractical especially for 3, 4, 5 star characters, as well as differences due to items added (within the 10-level blocks). Also I'm not sure what 'faction drops' in the advancement area would be used for? Eeb3 (talk) 17:51, 11 February 2016 (MST)


 * I'm not so sure about the skill section either, but that seems to be the most prevalent version in use right now. I suspect that once enough data has been recorded, we'll find that they follow a pattern and we won't need to keep full tables. I thought a faction drops column would be helpful to keep track of how many faction drops (Items which can only be obtained in faction stores or by running shuttles) are required to complete each equipment level. Because they're random, time-limited, and can't be obtained by running missions, knowing how many you need would give you an idea of how likely it is that the character will get stuck at a given level. It's a kind of measure of how difficult the character is to advance.--Shogo Yahagi (talk) 18:24, 11 February 2016 (MST)


 * Yea doing every skills for single level is far too verbose, difficult to read and impractical. Wouldn't be that accurate either as some editors may add stats at a given level, but they have item slots A and C filled, while others may have A and B which leads to higher skills. I think just 1 per rank - with no items equipped would be ideal/sufficient. EG: lvl1, lvl10 after you hit advance button but before you equip anything new, lvl20 as before, etc. I'll help cull down some of the character pages if there's no major arguments. The suggestion about all slots filled is impractical and in some cases impossible - many characters are still bugged where some items can't be built/found, plus do you really want to sit there with that tasty advance button flashing as you gather up data for the wiki each time (sometimes you may forget)? So for ease of entry, no items would be better. And yea difficult faction drops or things available as rare 1 shot rewards should be noted. --Axer (talk) 00:47, 12 February 2016 (MST)


 * That sounds like a good idea to me. A table that has the base stats plus the stats after each advance with no new items equipped seems like it would be easier to collect and provide more reliable data, but still provide good information about character progression. I've updated the template to show what that might look like. I stacked tables because wide tables aren't very mobile friendly and because having them side-by-side would be unwieldy for 5-star characters. I would say that it seems like there is already some debate over how valuable that information is, so if you make changes, it might be good to move any collected data to the appropriate talk page rather than just removing it.--Shogo Yahagi (talk) 09:03, 12 February 2016 (MST)


 * Speaking of skill tables, do we need the Ship bonus column in the skill table? I've kept it from the existing tables, but I'm not sure we need it. I know we get a "+ Ship Ability" message when we train a character and they level up, but I tested it and don't see that anything changed after I got it. I checked the stats before leveling up from 39 to 40 and saw Wesley: Rewire, Initialize 6s, Cooldown 12 s, Duration: 12 s, Equipment Bonus Accuracy +20, Evasion +25. I checked them again after leveling up and got exactly the same values. My working theory is that the only thing that changes the Ship Ability is upgrading to a higher star level, and the only thing that changes the passive bonuses is filling equipment slots. Can anyone confirm this? Should we delete that column and update the Ship Ability table to show the bonus at different star levels?--Shogo Yahagi (talk) 09:28, 12 February 2016 (MST)


 * In regards to crew's ship ability (attack, accuracy and evasion), the value is simply the crew's rarity + (fusion level - 1) (Locutus of Borg (talk) 23:17, 17 February 2016 (MST))


 * No, it's more complicated. Or maybe they changed it in recent months. The formula is now rarity + fusion level + bias, and "bias" is an intrinsic value of each crew member. See Starship Battles. --Crunch (talk) 12:29, 22 May 2016 (CDT)


 * Still kinda new to the wiki community here, so I don't know if there's been discussions going on elsewhere (other than this page and the main community portal page). Haven't found any consensus as to a preferred crew template but seeing as how Falkonisdr's Character Template is on the main crew page (just above the table), I'll be using that to standardize any/all crew pages whenever I have stats to update. Like I said, I'm new to the community so if I'm overstepping or the admins are unhappy with this please let me know (Locutus of Borg (talk) 19:41, 18 February 2016 (MST))


 * I myself went and used the template that's found on this Talk page (and community page) which was the Template:Crew_Member, which there was no dissident to using it (at the time). Unfortunately I was blasted by another community member that I was "Using the wrong template, and causing more work." Buuut considering that when I added a few characters (and edited), the template version was posted and Falkonisdr's was 'not!' Plus there was no talk about his version from the community; So I do not believe I was in the wrong in this one particular manner. Now while Falkonisdr's may be a bit more complete in the variety of information, I actually prefer the Template version. Since more of the quick/small/short to present information is at the top-right of the page, in the info box, and the advancement items is nearer to the top (and opposing to the info box). That being more useful when you have a character and looking ahead to see what you will need from different factions. Followed by having the table-heavy "Level Progression" (instead of it being named 'Skills' perhaps?) towards the bottom of the page. This would make the page a bit shorter I would think, and save a bit on the 'white space' that I feel is distractedly noticeable with Falkonisdr's version, as well not repeating the same information in the same manner at different parts of the page. And I think having the # from active space ability doesn't need to be in the Progression table since from the look of things, it's based on star-progress, not level-progress. Eeb3 (talk) 02:51, 19 February 2016 (MST)


 * They both look very similar. Advancement items table moved to the top and it looks cleaner due to only having skill tables to accomodate up to 2* crew. Personally I'm fine with using either templates. Just waiting for someone higher up to make the call cos I find it a minor annoyance navigating through different crew pages and seeing no standardization. Also, while we're on the subject, do we want the skills table to list the skills in order of priority (highest to lowest) or follow how they appear in the crew management screen in-game (Command, Diplomacy, Engineering, Science, Security, Medicine)?(Locutus of Borg (talk) 03:19, 19 February 2016 (MST))


 * I'd say to list the skills how they appear in the crew management screen. That'll be the same for all of us.--Siguard (talk) 10:55, 19 February 2016 (MST)

-
 * There seem to be 2 formats of Passive Ship Bonus. One on the Detailed Stats popup on the Manage Crew screen and one on the Space Battle Screen. The popup seem to list the names the programmers use and the Space Battle screen lists the names I think are for the players. (critChance = Crit Rating) Eventually the programmers will fix this discrepancy. So i suggest we use the Space Battle screen format. Xar (talk) 13:48, 20 February 2016 (MST)


 * Sounds good. Added an editor's note in the template to reflect this (Locutus of Borg (talk) 17:48, 20 February 2016 (MST))


 * I've seen people change specific value texts between a few formats. e.g. Skills values are written as '23 + (3 - 10)', '23 +(3-10)', '23+(3~10)', etc. and passive ship bonuses as 'critBonus: 25, accuracy: 10', 'Crit Bonus: +25 Accuracy: +10', 'Crit Bonus +25, Accuracy +10', etc. We could use in game formats (Skills: 23 +(3-10) and Passive Ship Bonus (from Space battle screen): Crit Bonus: +25 Accuracy: +10), but that can be unintuitive to some, because the readability is different in wiki font than in game font. We don't have a proper wiki template yet to do all the formatting for us. I think we should allow most formats for now until we have proper template and to avoid ping-pong between formats. I'v been reading up on template design, but dynamic tables are the challenge i think. Xar (talk) 05:38, 23 February 2016 (MST
 * I have to agree. The last few days I've been changing formats to what I thought should be the standard, only to have others change it back, and I realize it's a lot of time wasted. So until we can get it formally standardized, I'm just going to let people use whatever format they want as long as it's intuitively understandable. (Locutus of Borg (talk) 05:50, 23 February 2016 (MST))

-


 * Yea ultimately neither of them are very good. Neither are actually templates in the way a wiki should use templates. Done properly it would allow any editor to simply quickly jot in the numbers they see, and all of the formatting and styling would be done automatically, as well as clean up any capitalization issues automatically. As an example of a gaming wiki that uses them: http://ddowiki.com/page/Template:Named_Weapon


 * The current templates are kinda tedious requiring you to erase question marks and insert +-, copy paste stars, etc. I could probably write one, but theres probably more talented people with more knowledge of wikiext then me lurking about. For the mean time my vote is Character_Template as it's a little bit more complete and I just fixed the wording on how we should do stats to be more logical. (Other template makes zero sense, it implies we will have to level all of our characters +10 levels while purposely slotting zero items along the way, very much not a thing that's gonna happen)


 * So yea i'd say we merge in anything useful in Template:Crew_Member to Character_Template (ultimately if someone makes a proper template, using the template namespace is obviously more correct, but neither actually do that atm) and delete the former to avoid confusion about what to use. Also it doesn't matter who designed each one, or who's "higher up", its a wiki, it needs to be a community effort. Rule 1 of wikis: Be bold and make the edits, if there's conflicts resolve em here in the talk pages --Axer (talk) 08:45, 19 February 2016 (MST)


 * Made a few edits to Character_Template: Removed Ship Ability column from Skills table (Added info on Ships regarding crew ship ability bonus). Also added gold stars to Advancement table for convenience and to remove future discrepancies (currently some people use basic/common/uncommon/etc and others use stars). (Locutus of Borg (talk) 10:11, 19 February 2016 (MST))


 * Thank You!I'm a huge fan of using ★ 's for rarity ...if y'all haven't noticed from my edits. Like, to the point of accidentally breaking a few hyperlinks. oops. I'm starting work on fixing that with Item crafting tables as seen here Hirogen Technician Suit. I tried my hand at a tricky one with different variations Starfleet Command Uniform --Siguard (talk) 10:55, 19 February 2016 (MST)


 * I agree with you on creating a single template to avoid confusion and unnecessary edits. I have modified Character_Template a bit: Added a character page link to the info box, changed advancement column header to level and some minor capitalization inconsistencies.


 * It might be better to prioritize the Advancement table. I think that's the part most people are interested in. Xar (talk) 16:09, 19 February 2016 (MST)


 * I've moved the Advancement table to the top. Personally I find the Skills table more important (at this point of time) because I like to compare stat growth between crew with similar skills, but I can see how in the future (once the Items page is more populated with data) people would be more interested to see crew advancement and where they can find certain items (other than the 3 listed in-game). BTW nice work on your Item table template Siguard. Also removed Traits section from the page since it's already up there in the Info Box at the top right and I find it redundant to repeat (Locutus of Borg (talk) 19:36, 19 February 2016 (MST))

Merged Character_Template into Template:Crew_Member
I've merged the two templates as we seem to mostly be using the more updated character template, so this should help avoid further segmentation. Also Locutus I've moved the advancement/item list back down because it's best to go with we what we agree to be most useful to the users today, not what may perhaps be in the future. It will take a ton of time to have the wiki be close to 100% (and may never get there) and at which time the game may be heavily updated so such a section is not even particularly useful (EG: Item locations listed in game become accurate). --Axer (talk) 09:33, 24 February 2016 (MST)


 * All good Axer. Xar might have an issue with the relocation of the advancement table, but I'll let you guys hash it out. Right now I'm just happy that the info is there, even if everyone has different ideas on formatting. (Locutus of Borg (talk) 20:21, 24 February 2016 (MST))

Proper Crew Member Template
I've been working on a proper crew member template and so far this is what I have come up with. It's in my personal namespace for now, but if we can agree on the format, I can move it to the Template namespace. The page contains an example, but I also edited Botanist Keiko to use the template as an example. Botanist Keiko has been edited already, so you'll have to look in history for the example. I'm new to wiki editing so forgive any obvious errors. I would like your thoughts on this template, but I think it will reduce the work on the crew member pages in the long run. Xar (talk) 08:31, 1 March 2016 (MST)

Sela a Variation of Lt Yar ? --> NO.
Crew-Main-Page: Crew --> Commander Sela, Character --> Sela

In Crew-Profiles (Boxes) of Commander Sela, Lt Tasha Yar, Warship Yar - they are shown as variations of each other. That's a discrepancy. In my opinion Sela is an independent character. In TV Series Sela and Yar are played from the same actor, but Sela is Yar's daughter. Sela as a variation shoud be removed. What do you tink? --John Flame (talk) 08:28, 31 March 2016 (CDT)


 * Eh I think it's fine. Same actor, close enough. Same with Locutus. Locutus as a character is not Picard, his consciousness is entirely the borg, even if the actor is patrick stewart. Or even Arachnia and Cpt Proton. Or even any of the mirror universe guys, they aren't REALLY the same people either. But same actor, yea thats close enough. Plus I think it's interesting trivia for people who dont know, like me.. I actually didnt know until I randomly stumbled upon the ep where sela is introduced the other day - and I already had her and yar in my roster. If you wanna clarify it, add a trivia section to the bottom and explain shes her daughter but same actor. --Axer (talk) 08:39, 31 March 2016 (CDT)


 * It's close, but not close enough. Locutus is Picard, he is the kidnapped and assimilated Picard. All Mirror guys are the same characters in an other timeline. Proton and Arachnia are phantasy persons from Paris' Holoroman transfered to existing crew. They are all variations. What is about Data, Lore and Arik Soong ---> in my opinion NO variations. On the other hand Tempted Data is a variation of data, because he is a modified data. You should not take a look from sight of a television viewer, who see an actor. Take a look fron inside ST-Universe. --John Flame (talk) 09:27, 31 March 2016 (CDT)


 * Eh, I choose neither viewpoint, I'll take the viewpoint of a wiki editor, and what will be most useful to the reader. More links are better. Period. If they are even REMOTELY related, no matter how far fetched, put em in the see also. If you want to clarify exactly why the same actor is a different person in some trivia down below that, like I said, go for it. You may also create a character page specifically for Sela too, why not. The point is, more info = better. Don't remove info over silly semantics. --Axer (talk) 10:03, 31 March 2016 (CDT)


 * There are no semantics and there is nothing silly. We talk about facts. The best information is useless if it is false. If Sela (däughter) is a veriation of Yar (mother), Wesley is a variation of Beverley?!? Most people think, that Sela is Yar in an other timeline and that kind of crosslinking support that wrong information. To write a trivia or Sela charakter page is a good idea, but should take some time, because English is not my native language. I wrote to Siguard. He should tell us his sight and if he know about that mother-daughter-fact. --John Flame (talk) 10:55, 31 March 2016 (CDT)


 * Umm, this is a hard one. On one hand, no, Sela isn't Yar. On the other hand, she's only a minor character so it short of doesn't matter. I'm a little conflicted here. I'm afraid I'm not going to be a lot of help in this case. sorry. --Siguard (talk) 11:44, 31 March 2016 (CDT)


 * Perhaps maybe have another (optional) box marked as Actor Portrayals, where an actor plays as different distinct characters, therefore leaving Variations for the same in-universe characters? Since Sela and Tasha Yar, are different people In-Universe, much like; Data, Lore, B-4, and Soong and Soong are in spite of the same actors. Eeb3 (talk) 11:55, 31 March 2016 (CDT)


 * By the way, we can add more text to the wiki pages. See for instance Scientist Degra or Arachnia Janeway (not claiming that those are well-written blurbs, but the concept). The connection between Sela and Yar is meaningful, but you can write it in a text like that, no? Much less confusing. As a wiki we should provide all the relevant info, but we shouldn't do it in a confusing way (say, implying that Sela is Yar or viceversa). --Dhrekr (talk) 12:09, 31 March 2016 (CDT)

Huge change in character stats
As most of you know, during the server update of the 4th April lots of character stats changed. The problem is most obvious with Ultra-rares and Legendaries: Janeway was slightly nerfed, but Degra and Tempted Data have received substantial buffs.

DB does not release the skills as a function of level of characters, so we don't know how many characters were affected (but we can easily imagine that every single number of the tables of the affected characters needs to be reviewed).

What should we do with the numbers we have? If we just edit the tables, we'll surely end up with tables that are half-correct and half-wrong. Erase everything? Use color-coding to mark "updated" values? Write comments? --Dhrekr (talk) 09:34, 5 April 2016 (CDT)


 * With the last minor change to critBonus and critChance, we left it alone and as users leveled their crew, they'd fix the errors. Such is the like of a wiki editor. I kind of do like the idea of maybe having orange text to indicate that the level stats are out of date. --Siguard (talk) 12:21, 5 April 2016 (CDT)


 * The only reason why I'm satisfied with that solution for the battle stats is that they are so secondary. What we saw here is a major shift in stats. As for "people will fix the errors"... I'm not that happy about that. Part of fixing a problem is tracking where the problem is. --Dhrekr (talk) 16:16, 5 April 2016 (CDT)


 * I've added the 4th of April update to the news section on the front page, so all the people who use the wiki will be aware that there have been some recent changes. --Samentarchy (talk) 21:32, 5 April 2016 (CDT)


 * I for one prefer to replace all existing data with ?? when you stumble upon an updated character. As soon as you notice data is out of date/incorrect, to me there seems to be no use keeping it.--Captain deMarco (talk) 21:32, 5 April 2016 (CDT)


 * That seems a bit drastic. Outdated data is usually more useful than no data at all. The ideal solution would allow for a "Last confirmed date" for every piece of data, but how can that be made practical? (It could also help to focus on stale data instead of rechecking fresh data over and over again.) --Tygra Dax (talk) 03:03, 24 April 2016 (CDT)

Crew Infobox Picture
The infobox on each crew member page contains a head picture that is 150x150px to 200x200px to keep the infobox looking consistent and preventing it from being stretched wider or taller with a larger image. Koba44 (User_talk:Koba44) has some nice full-shot pictures of the characters, and stated to replace the head shots with them - see Recovering Spock, Vedek Winn Adami, Lt Commander Scott for examples. I suggested he add these full photos to the associated character page instead within a gallery. Another suggestion would be to create a gallery at the bottom of the crew page (Above 'See Also' section?) that will contain things like 'Level 100' image(s) and other related pictures for that particular crew memeber. I wanted to bring it up for discussion here. Should we limit the infobox to max 200x200 head shots or allow full body images? Jello (talk) 12:46, 11 April 2016 (CDT)


 * I don't mind either way. On the one hand sticking with 200x200 images keeps things consistent which is always good. On the other hand the full-length portraits do look nice, and I don't see a massive issue using them if they're available. Interested in hearing what others think. -- ST Logo.png MilkN2Sugars (My talk page) 12:55, 11 April 2016 (CDT)


 * I think the headshot for the infobox is the way to go. It is kind of a summary and an at-a-glance. The full portrait can either go beside in the character card spot, if there is none, or somewhere else (gallery, bottom-of-page, etc). --Jruff (talk) 13:22, 11 April 2016 (CDT)


 * So how about we create Gallery section to each crew member and there wiould be placed (1) crew member card if available and (2) my full-shot picture, if available. I think it should be placed in the upper side of the page, because almost nobody will scroll down. --koba44 (koba44 talk page) 16:18, 12 April 2016


 * So How about this: Commander Spock. --koba44 (koba44 talk page) 07:51, 20 April 2016

Equipment rank
Lots of pages have: Their equipment rank would be level/10+1. IMHO, this is wrong. More accurate would be Their equipment rank would be level/10. I.e.: Without a template, it would be a giant PITA to correct, though. Maybe that could be automated in some way? --Tygra Dax (talk) 02:51, 24 April 2016 (CDT)
 * level 1 => rank 0
 * level 10 => rank 0 (before Advance), level 1 (after Advance)
 * level 11 => rank 1

Finished Crew but different data
I got two screenshots of a finished Captain Janeway from my teammades. The problem is, they have different data in skills. Witch one is correct? Whitch one is the base for crew page? Do you have other crew, with different skill data? --John Flame (talk) 15:32, 28 April 2016 (CDT)


 * The correct one is the second. I suspect that the first screenshot is very old - DB did some rebalancing of the skills of several Epic and Legendary crew roughly one month ago, and Janeway's DIP and SCI were slightly nerfed. I suggest you contact the person who gave you the first screenshot and ask them if it's still accurate. --Dhrekr (talk) 05:01, 30 April 2016 (CDT)

New announced crew members
For reference, this seems to be the article the new, announced crew members (Kurn et al.) were taken from: http://www.startrek.com/article/ten-new-characters-for-timelines (May 19th), and from the "official" site http://www.disruptorbeam.com/blog/2016/5/23/get-ready-to-expand-your-crew-quarters-ten-new-characters-coming-to-star-trek-timelines (May 23rd) The articles also contain pictures (but not real headshots, though. --Crunch (talk) 19:59, 25 May 2016 (CDT)

New crew announced

 * Dabo Girl Leeta
 * Surgeon Phlox
 * Hugh
 * Commander Kang
 * Mara
 * CMO Ogawa
 * Mora Pol
 * Lt Commander Nella Daren
 * The Viceroy
 * Lwaxana Troi

Crew advancement - suggestion
What do you think about this:

These items are required by Enterprise-D Picard in order to advance through groups of levels.

--Koba44 (talk) 04:07, 13 June 2016 (CDT)


 * Hm, I kinda like it. Maybe combining both, as a best of both worlds? In which case we'd have to decrease the font size a bit:
 * {| class="wikitable"

! style="font-size:75%;" | Equip Rank !! colspan=2 | Equipment 1 !! colspan=2 | Equipment 2 !! colspan=2 | Equipment 3 !! colspan=2 | Equipment 4 ! 0 ! 1 ! 9
 * class="ItemRight" | 1: || style="font-size:90%;" | StarfleetUniformTNGBasic.png Starfleet Uniform (TNG)
 * class="ItemRight" | 2: || style="font-size:90%;" | PrimeDirectiveBasic.png Prime Directive
 * class="ItemRight" | 4: || style="font-size:90%;" | EarlGreyTeaBasic.png Earl Grey Tea
 * class="ItemRight" | 5: || style="font-size:90%;" | AuthorizationCodeBasic.png Authorization Code
 * class="ItemRight" | 10: || style="font-size:90%;" | DiplomaticDressUniformTNGBasic.png Diplomatic Dress Uniform (TNG)
 * class="ItemRight" | 13: || style="font-size:90%;" | NovelCommon.png Novel
 * class="ItemRight" | 16: || style="font-size:90%;" | TextBookFlippedCommon.png Archaeology Text
 * class="ItemRight" | 20: || style="font-size:90%;" | EarlGreyTeaCommon.png Earl Grey Tea
 * colspan="9" style="text-align:center" | &#8942;
 * colspan="9" style="text-align:center" | &#8942;
 * class="ItemRight" | 90: || style="font-size:90%;" | StarfleetDiplomacyUniformTNGRare.png Starfleet Diplomacy Uniform (TNG)
 * class="ItemRight" | 93: || style="font-size:90%;" | ArtificialHeartRare.png Artificial Heart
 * class="ItemRight" | 96: || style="font-size:90%;" | PrimeDirectiveRare.png Prime Directive
 * class="ItemRight" | 99: || style="font-size:90%;" | SaddleSuperRare.png Saddle
 * }
 * Also, if we decide to change it one way or the other, we could quickly write a variant of Template:Item, which would also simplify future page edits and changing in the look. I included these variants here: Talk:Items. --Crunch (talk) 18:25, 14 June 2016 (CDT)
 * Ah, for a template to include the image links, we'd have to somehow map item names to SLI base image (=some variante of Template:SLINav) --Crunch (talk) 18:47, 14 June 2016 (CDT)
 * Well, in my opinion, if you place item name and rarity next to the picture - it the same information duplicated, because rarity is obvious from the picture and the information about item itself is useless unless you click on it and see additional info (isnt it?). I wonder if its possible to create template that automatically loads correct picture according to inputted 'Item Name' and 'Rarity'. Problem is that THEY often upload item images and its impossible to update all pictures on all crew members that uses that item. --Koba44 (talk) 15:58, 16 June 2016 (CDT)
 * I disagree. Redundancy isn't really an issue/problem (that's exactly what the current item template already does: the color coded Basic/Common/Uncommon etc. is nothing more than a different representation of the star rarity), and it would be good to include as much information as possible (and feasible) into an entry *before* having to click it. The image helps a lot visually recognizing an item, and therefore finding it in the table. However, the item name is also a vital piece of information, especially when searching in a page, having the search highlight items of the same type, etc.


 * Yes, the images do have a tooltip - but it takes one full second for it to appear, for each image, which quickly becomes annoying.


 * A possible compromise could at least be, to remove the additional star rarity after the item name - but again, it's about visibility/overview: for the large stars, you only need one quick look to get a good overview which items are more difficult than others. For just the images, it's much more difficult: the stars are MUCH smaller, and embedded in the image, and often difficult to see due to the colored image content. The colored frames do help a bit, too - but again, it's hard, as the frames are very thin, and in addition Basic and Common are undistinguishable.


 * Concerning a template: I'd love to have/make one. But at the moment, there is no optimal solution. These are the possibilities we have:
 * everything manually: this would mean supplying the item name, the rarity, and the resulting image name (which can differ from the item name due to SLI). but the template would be trivial.
 * creating a large switch statement for ALL items (excluding rarity) to map to image names, and list (and maintain!) that in the template.
 * install the string extension/module in the wiki. then we can automatically extract the image name from the item name. but we'd still need a maintained switch statement to map all item names to their SLI base names (if applicable). such a template would help in other places as well, though. for example, on item pages one would only have to place a  ONCE, and would never again have to touch this part of any item page, even if the image or the SLI assignment changes. --Crunch (talk) 10:44, 18 June 2016 (CDT)
 * I have to strongly disagree with this change. It makes it increases page width (for characters with a bunch of really long item names), or increases the length of the page. It also makes it much harder to quickly check what items are required (without clicking on the icon). Many items have the same icons (holoprograms for example). As for Tooltips, they DO NOT WORK on Safari on iPhones, which is one of the main platforms used to view the wiki considering STT is played on iPhones. (I can't speak for Android) --Admiral Titan (talk) 15:45, 18 June 2016 (CDT)
 * It seems to me you are talking about the "icon-only" variant, which I don't favorite either. However, combining icon and regular link resolves most of the issues you listed. The only remaining fact would be that the vertical size increases a bit (which could be remedied by reducing the icon size a bit, see here), but the benefit would be a better overview as you can get an idea of required items at a glance due to the icon, as opposed to having to read all text and trying to remember which item is which. --Crunch (talk) 18:18, 18 June 2016 (CDT)
 * Perhaps a slight modification? This would help minorly with the 'width' of the table, and uses up a bit of the 'whitespace' caused by the height of the icon.


 * --Eeb3 (talk) 18:54, 18 June 2016 (CDT)


 * Sounds like a good idea! --Crunch (talk) 11:38, 2 July 2016 (CDT)


 * And what about creating template that do this: Novel NovelCommon.png  ;  Prime Directive  PrimeDirectiveRare.png    --Koba44 (talk) 08:45, 2 July 2016 (CDT)
 * Don't Tooltips have the problem of not showing up on mobile? Also, you wouldn't get the "at a glance" overview. --Crunch (talk) 11:38, 2 July 2016 (CDT)

Crew advancement - suggestion #2
Yet another suggestion:

How about creating template to automatically add Crewmember's name and level to Item's page on last row "Used by". In Crew advancement something like: and then it would automatically place  to the last row in Item's page. Is this, or something similar possible to do? --Koba44 (talk) 03:51, 1 August 2016 (CDT)


 * I'd love to see something do this automatically. I think it's going to require scripting against the Wikimedia API, though.  A couple of us over in the Discord chat have been playing around with data scraped from this wiki, and it would be trivial to generate a list of updates necessary.  We could probably even automatically update it, since several languages have reasonable Wikimedia API libraries.  Thoughts? Silverstorm (talk) 01:52, 23 November 2016 (CST)


 * I don't have the time ATM to think about this more thoroughly, but I'd say anything that automatically creates/updates/interconnects these pages sounds great!
 * I had been thinking about making the Item pages some form of includable templates, as the DropTests are, so you could call an Item page with a parameter and get the image in return, or a preformatted section, or query it in other ways. But that idea has gotten pretty low on my TODO list for now (probably related to the fact that we have almost 1000 items by now...). --Crunch (talk) 15:03, 25 November 2016 (CST)
 * Something else that might be helpful in this context would be to unify item names, and especially making them named the same way as the item pages (as it's done with the Crew head.png's). However, this would necessitate tons of redirects for all the SLI items I guess. --Crunch (talk) 15:06, 25 November 2016 (CST)


 * I'll put an auto-linker further up my TODO list. I know as I've been adding items, I'm linking between crew and item, but not really between item and its constituent parts.  Given the number of things built from the components, that just seems...unnecessary. Silverstorm (talk) 23:37, 6 December 2016 (CST)

Character Count vs Vault
I just noticed that the character count on the wiki is at 260, but the vault in the app only shows 259 for me. Perhaps one of the characters is not appearing in the vault? Just curious about the discrepancy. --Dorian (talk) 13:34, 3 October 2016 (CDT)

Well, never mind. I just answered my own question. The Fesek crew page was missing, so I created that. That brings total crew count on the wiki to 259, matching the vault count. There are two additional files that get counted on the wiki, which is why the number on the front page is off. --Dorian (talk) 13:34, 3 October 2016 (CDT)


 * Interesting. My vault lists only 258...I wonder who's missing/why you have one extra?
 * Also, near the end there is an "Orion Slaver", which doesn't exist in the Wiki yet as well. So it seems something else is off. I'll check. --Crunch (talk) 14:01, 3 October 2016 (CDT)
 * {| class="wikitable"

!in Vault not in Wiki !in Wiki not in Vault
 * Orion Slaver   || Captain Sulu
 * Commander Kelby || Grilka
 * || Rianna Mayweather
 * || The One, Lore
 * }
 * My vault of 258 vs. Category:Crew --Crunch (talk) 14:30, 3 October 2016 (CDT)
 * || The One, Lore
 * }
 * My vault of 258 vs. Category:Crew --Crunch (talk) 14:30, 3 October 2016 (CDT)
 * My vault of 258 vs. Category:Crew --Crunch (talk) 14:30, 3 October 2016 (CDT)


 * FWIW, they announced a new update on the server, so there are a few other pages that are in need of creation for new characters and crew. I started a few, but don't have time now to do a full check. --Dorian (talk) 17:48, 3 October 2016 (CDT)

Adding Crew Pages
I've had to add a couple crew pages recently, and I spent a couple hours throwing together a -based template for new crew. I probably should have put it in my own user namespace, but I didn't. It's at Template:Crew/add. I've included an example for Delta Flyer Paris. I've been testing (again, not in my user space *wince*) at Delta Flyer Paris testing. I'm happy to move things to my user space, if someone can help clean up the testing bits. One thing in particular is weird: with less than 4 stars, there are extra newlines in the table. This is due to the templates and substitutions being on separate lines. If they're not, the resulting table doesn't work well for further editing of skills, etc. If anyone has ideas, I'd love to hear them. I saw something with an "ifnotempty" template, but it doesn't (yet) exist on this wiki. Silverstorm (talk) 01:48, 23 November 2016 (CST)
 * Haven't tried it yet, but such a template seems an important addition. I believe there was a static template for 4*, and at a completely different place one for 5*, not sure. So a simplified version of that is great.
 * Regarding your question, there is Template:Rawif, which might be helpful. --Crunch (talk) 14:58, 25 November 2016 (CST)
 * I noticed the extra newline in 2 and 3 star crew and there are two extra newlines when adding a 1 star. Not that I expect that we'll get any 1 star crew anytime soon, but I was testing and noticed this and thought it might provide a clue to what the problem is. I played around with it for an hour or so last night in my own user space, but couldn't figure it out. Like Crunch, I believe this is a great addition and will help expedite the creating of new crew. And in response to Crunch, there is in fact a 4 star template located at Template:Crew_Member/Super_Rare. --Darxide (talk) 18:46, 6 December 2016 (CST)


 * I will look at Template:Rawif. I discovered that some time after I'd made the template, and I haven't had a chance to try it out and update the template.  Once I do, I'll report back and see what happens.  Darxide's idea of separate templates for separate rarities could work, but any subsequent changes become tedious. Silverstorm (talk) 23:40, 6 December 2016 (CST)
 * I would actually prefer a single template that can handle all rarities. I was simply posting a link to the template that Crunch was mentioning. --Darxide (talk) 18:32, 7 December 2016 (CST)
 * Agreed. Single template is preferable.  I'll continue to experiment with my  -based approach.  It worked pretty well today with North Star Tucker and Dr. David Marcus, and the initial text is seen in the history of each page. Silverstorm (talk) 18:37, 7 December 2016 (CST)

Replacing hires crew images?
Hi all. I notices that LapplandsCohan is replacing Hi-Res crew portraits with blank background (I believe they originated from DB, in that quality). with lower resolution portraits with Immortalized-cryostasis-vault background. (For Example Claiborne Chekov or 1701 Jadzia Dax) I want to ask, if this is what we want to do. Because if so, I can add several portraits from The Vault myself, but those HiRes portraits was sacred to me :D --Koba44 (talk) 02:56, 30 November 2016 (CST)
 * Well, actually, I'd prefer the vault images over the "old" images, as the starry background is a nice touch, and it would generate a uniform look. Especially since in the "old" images, the border thickness and layout will always be inconsistent, as it depends on the current level of the character. The only advantage they have is that they have the rarity as color information - but many images don't even have that, as they were apparently cropped from somewhere else.
 * Having said that - I also agree we should definitely keep the high resolution images wherever they exist.
 * A best-of-both-worlds could be to use the vault image (=starry background), but replace the head with the high res version (i.e., edit the high res version with the starry background backdrop). What do you guys think? --Crunch (talk) 17:31, 6 December 2016 (CST)
 * My personal preference is to have transparent backgrounds, however as this is a community effort, I will go with the consensus. That said, the higher res vault images are nice. Koba44 and I have both reverted a couple of the images that LappslandCohan uploaded if they previously had transparent backgrounds. I don't hate the starry backgrounds from the vault, though, but like I said I do prefer transparent backgrounds. If we decide to go with vault images, I have a number of them I can contribute as well. --Darxide (talk) 18:28, 6 December 2016 (CST)


 * The few crew head shots I've added (Ensign Robin Lefler, plus Disguised Tuvok, Mirror T'Pol, and Lieutenant Valeris from Family Tree) are the source images from the asset bundles that DB generates. They ran a presentation in early 2016(?) where the process for asset bundles was described.  Fairly straightforward to look at the requests made to download those files, and then to extract using Unity-oriented tools.  I could probably manage to get them all in fairly quick order.  They have transparent backgrounds, which I prefer.  There are enough stars on the wiki's background; we don't need more. Silverstorm (talk) 23:44, 6 December 2016 (CST)


 * I think we should keep the current styles.In other words:
 * {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; font-size:13px;"


 * Crew head.png]]
 * Crew Head.png]]
 * }
 * -- 14:59, 7 December 2016 (CST)
 * I concur with Admiral Titan. I hadn't even realized there was a separate distinction for the templates with and without rarity backgrounds. It certainly covers all bases, I think. --Darxide (talk) 18:33, 7 December 2016 (CST)
 * Consistency is important. I can go with that approach.  What are the guidelines/use cases for each of the two images?  That should be documented somewhere for current and future maintainers. Silverstorm (talk) 18:37, 7 December 2016 (CST)
 * As far as i know the first option stated above is for use everywhere. The second option is for use on personal user pages. (if that user desires). Id personally suggest that the crew heads with the star background be reverted to the image with transparent backgrounds (or rarity backgrounds). While consistency is nice, having it consistent with what actually appears in game is also important. (transparent and rarity borders are consistent, star background is not). -- 19:37, 7 December 2016 (CST)
 * Agreed. If Silverstorm can extract the transparent background headshots of all crew like he offered to, then we should be able get everything consistent in relatively short order. --Darxide (talk) 21:17, 8 December 2016 (CST)
 * Agreed. If Silverstorm can extract the transparent background headshots of all crew like he offered to, then we should be able get everything consistent in relatively short order. --Darxide (talk) 21:17, 8 December 2016 (CST)

Release Dates
Would it be possible to add the release date for each character to the table? I checked here to try to find the most recent character releases for a project I'm working on, but I wasn't able to find that information either on the main Crew page or on the pages for individual crew members --Starsaber (talk) 20:07, 10 January 2017 (CST)
 * I'd say that adding them to the table on the Crew page is very unlikely. That is information that the majority of players would consider to be unnecessary and useless. This information is on the majority of crew pages under the section Trivia or Notes. If its not listed under Trivia or Notes, id suggest looking at the Page History, by clicking the link at the top of the page titled: "View history", and looking at when the page was created. I hope this helps, 00:37, 11 January 2017 (CST)
 * The release date in the Notes section of crew is often omitted. I'm sure it's possible to find the release dates on the DB forums for just about every crew member, though. However, it would require a fair amount of effort and research to find and enter all of the information. What I would suggest to Starsaber though is to create a crew list in his own personal user space with any additional information he desires. That's essentially what it's there for. I've done some similar things in my own user space. --Darxide (talk) 14:54, 12 January 2017 (CST)